


Excelsior

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Series: Alternian Nights [7]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternia-Focused, Backstory, Character Study, Family, Fifteen Minute Fic, Gen, Pre-Sgrub
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-30
Updated: 2014-08-30
Packaged: 2018-02-15 10:28:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2225646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's hard, having an egg for a lusus.  But Terezi has no regrets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Excelsior

**Author's Note:**

> **1.** I wrote this with the vague intention of participating in [#protect terezi pyrope week](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/protect-terezi-pyrope-week), because I am all in favor of giving Terezi things to be happy about. **2.** This is part of my [Alternian Nights](http://archiveofourown.org/series/42241) series. It's a little hard to place since it's a character study rather than a specific single incident, but there are references to the Team Charge Flarp disaster and its aftermath, so it's currently the last in the sequence. **3.** This ficlet was inspired by the 8/17/14 [15_minute_ficlets](http://15_minute_ficlets.dreamwidth.org) word #199.

There are no dragons on Alternia. Not anymore. Not since the Time of Exile.

Your lusus is the only remnant, presumably left in place because nobody wanted to disturb the doomsday scale on which it sits. You're not entirely certain how she got _onto_ the scale, or what you're going to do when she eventually hatches, but your current working theory is that it's all a massive trick designed to confuse and annoy a hapless exterminator squad into fudging their paperwork and giving the species a last, desperate chance at survival.

You are very glad she has survived long enough to choose you as her daughter!

It's tricky, of course, since she can't move around and can't communicate much either -- just a sort of formless projection of warmth and pity and flight that takes the edge off your daymares when your sopor shipments run late. Which they do, a lot. You don't live in a listed residential zone and you're not high enough on the hemocaste to override most drones' patterns. You only got one construction drone to help build your hive, so you've had to add all the extensions yourself. You can only get your allotted deliveries about half the time, so you've learned to hunt and gather to stretch you through the gaps. And if you lose your connection to the satellite power grid, you're stuck relying on the solar panels you scrounged up to requisition and painstakingly installed yourself (with some hilariously grumpy advice from a yellowblood you met online in a DIY hardware chatroom).

You took up playing Flarp as much to make money as because you love roleplaying and a good challenge.

It's hard, having an egg for a lusus. It's hard, and none of your friends understand.

But you wouldn't trade your mom for the world. You're strong because of everything you've had to do on your own. You know she's proud of you. You're proud of her, too. She's survived centuries without the mesh of other dragons' thoughts that should have sheltered her own dreams. When you needed her the most, she woke up sweeps too soon, still trapped in her egg, and taught you a new way to see.

And somenight, when she hatches, the two of you are going to own the sky.


End file.
